Actually, St. Ignatius includes "his mother" before "Mary" in the title of this step. Even though no such appearance is documented in Scripture, he considered it impossible that Jesus would fail to comfort his deeply grieving mother.
I wonder, when he entered eternity, did he learn that he was correct or mistaken? I find it odd to believe that such an appearance would fail to be captured by either St. Luke, who documented so much of Mary's role in Jesus' Incarnation, or St. John, who included her presence at the cross. But since "the other disciple" had taken her into his care, and was presumably the eyewitness providing this testimony so that we may believe, we may be confident that Mary was fully aware of her son's resurrection. Since all links on the Step-by-step Retreats website to the Manual for the retreat are broken, including the one for his meditation on Jesus' appearance to his mother, for the present I will forgo any further consideration of St. Ignatius' point of view on this.
On entering this step I see that I should consider each Scripture four times throughout this phase. If I had been aware of this earlier I would have done the first one this morning! I will attempt to follow this pattern for future sessions, as I can see that this will provide an opportunity for a variety of encounter with Jesus in each of his appearances.This will also keep me from feeling that I must cover all desired aspects in one sitting. So my plan for each iteration is to read each passage in full, and to pick one or two particular thoughts on which to focus my attention. (Since I missed this morning, I'll double up now.)
Mk 16:1-11
And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid. - (6-8)
Pope Francis shared a wonderful insight of an insight we might take from the angel's instruction to the disciples through Mary Magdalene, Clopas' wife Mary and Salome. Galilee is where Jesus and most of the disciples were from, and where his ministry started. By directing their return there, Pope Francis suggests that they are being told to go back to where things began. There they were to reevaluate every aspect of their time with Jesus - perhaps even of their lives - in the new light of his resurrection.
I find his reference to "his disciples and Peter" significant. Some interpret this as a nod to Peter's role as leader of the church. I wonder if it might just be because his denial of Jesus might cause him to consider himself not to be a disciple any longer. The angel is indicating that Peter is not to exclude himself, and perhaps explicitly indicating to the disciples, if Peter had already confessed to them, that they are not to exclude him, either.
In fact, I find the inclusion of Peter's denial in all four gospels one of the most important validating elements in all of Scripture. If this were a hoax, would the writers have included such a disparaging account of one of the "cult's" preeminent leaders? It would require a remarkable degree of insight into human psychology for them to do so, one that is largely missing from modern cults even after an additional two millenia of learning about human nature.
My final thoughts on these few verses. They fled and were deeply afraid, and this does not so much appear to be fear of the chief priests and temple authorities as of the news itself. As a result, none of them appear to obey the angel's instruction at this time. But perhaps they did not understand him to be an angel. Nonetheless, their fear and uncertainty cause them not to immediately go and tell the disciples the tidings they have been told.
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